Be a Berean

[0:00] Acts 17-15 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.

[0:22] ! And when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue.! Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica.! They received the word, with all eagerness, examining the scripture daily to see if these things were so.

[0:34] Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds.

[0:48] Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

[1:02] I got my first real job when I turned 16. My baseball coach was, I remember what his job was with the city of Overland Park.

[1:16] I just knew that he wore a suit to work, so he did something important. For any of us on his team who wanted a job, he got us a job working for the city. We were all doing different things over the summer.

[1:28] My job was to work at the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. Yeah. I planted trees. I watered plants.

[1:40] I basically did all the things that my boss and people above me didn't want to do, which meant pulling a lot of weeds. I pulled a lot of weeds. I got so used to pulling weeds that one time I was going into McDonald's and I saw weeds in the cracks in the sidewalk.

[1:56] Just instinctively, I reached down and I pulled out the weeds and I kind of looked at myself and thought, I've got to stop doing this job. So that was a summer job. Once that job was over, my dad told me I needed to get another job.

[2:10] And so they were building a Lowe's by my house. And so I filled out an application. And the only work experience I had was at the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens.

[2:21] And they saw that and they thought, what a great fit for our lawn and garden department. So I got a job at the lawn and garden department in Lowe's. College, I worked at Red Robin as a waiter.

[2:33] I worked at Cabela's. But I was a student athlete, which it was hard because you had class in the morning and then you had practice in the afternoon, which went to around dinner time. And so it was hard to be able to work.

[2:44] The only time I really could work was evenings and weekends. But in the summer, when I didn't have class or practice, I kept getting scheduled by those places working nights and weekends, which I didn't want to do.

[2:55] So I applied to work at a golf course. We started early in the morning, but we would end around 3.30 or so. And I got that job because I worked at the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens.

[3:07] And I worked at Lowe's in the lawn and garden department. My first job in ministry was to start a community garden in Chillicothe, Missouri for the House of Prayer Rescue Mission.

[3:21] And I got that job because I was in seminary and because I had worked at the Arboretum and at Lowe's and at the golf course. All this to say, I grew to appreciate the miracle of putting a tiny seed in the ground and watch it grow into something massive that would produce fruit to eat or something beautiful to look at.

[3:46] I also grew to loathe that kind of work. I'd come home dirty. I'd be sweaty. I'd be exhausted. I'd be bug bitten. And so I used to tell myself, if you don't want to do this forever, then you're going to have to study and you're going to have to make good grades in school.

[4:06] Which is funny now because I actually enjoy taking care of our lawn now, which Danny is pleasantly surprised by because that hadn't been the case until now.

[4:18] So anyhow, Jesus used a lot of illustrations from agriculture to communicate profound spiritual truths for us.

[4:28] And so I'm thankful for that experience that I got working the ground because I feel like it better helps me understand the passages where he's using agriculture and illustrations from agriculture to communicate spiritual truth.

[4:44] And of course, Jesus used those kinds of illustrations because that's the kind of work that most of the people that he spoke to did in Judea. Even if you weren't a farmer, you needed to grow your own food and you needed to raise your own animals.

[4:59] And so in Mark 4, Jesus tells the parable of the sower, which is also recorded in Matthew and Luke's Gospel. I want to read that to you. Mark 4, 1 through 9. Again, he began to teach beside the sea, and a large crowd gathered about him so that he went into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land.

[5:20] And he was teaching them, saying many things in parables, and in his teachings he said to them, Listen, behold, the sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seed fell among the path, and the birds came and devoured it.

[5:30] Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil, and it immediately sprang up since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.

[5:46] And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold. And he said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. After Jesus tells that parable, he explains the meaning of it to his disciples in verses 13 through 20.

[6:04] And he said to them, Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. And there are the ones along the path where the word is sown.

[6:15] When they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground. The ones who, when they hear the word, and he's talking about the gospel, immediately receive it with joy.

[6:27] And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while. And then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And the others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

[6:46] But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it, and bear fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold.

[6:56] And then Jesus urges his disciples to not keep hidden the truths that he's told them. He's imploring them to not hide those truths, to listen to them carefully.

[7:09] If they taught what Jesus taught, if they obeyed what Jesus commanded, he tells them, you'll reap good things, you'll reap what you sow. The one who learns spiritual truths and who applies those truths diligently will receive even more truth to faithfully apply to their lives.

[7:24] The disciples are called by Jesus to let their light shine, let the truth shine in their lives, the truth that he's revealed to them. And they'll have a big role in that in advancing the gospel after his death and his resurrection that they didn't quite understand or they didn't understand at this point in Mark 4.

[7:44] Jesus then uses another parable, same chapter in Mark, from the world of agriculture to communicate how God will use their faithful proclamation of the gospel to accomplish his sovereign will.

[7:56] Mark 4, 26 through 27. And he said, the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and he rises night and day and the seed sprouts and grows.

[8:07] He knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe at once, he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come. And so we see from this illustration, very basically, the farmer scatters seed.

[8:22] He doesn't make the seed grow. He can plow the field, but he can't send rain. He can't cause the sun to shine. He scatters the seed. He goes home. He sleeps. He wakes up.

[8:33] And before long, the seed that fell on the good soil yields a harvest. Jesus then tells another parable from the world of agriculture about the kingdom of God. Again, same chapter, Mark chapter 4.

[8:46] And he said, with what can we compare the kingdom of God or what parable shall we use for it? It's like a grain of mustard seed, which when sown on the ground is the smallest of all the seeds on earth.

[8:57] Yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the year can make nests in its shade. From one small seed that goes into the ground and dies and then germinates comes a large life-giving plant.

[9:15] The mustard shrub can grow up to 15 feet high. And it also provides food. Mustard. You guys have mustard?

[9:26] It also was used in this time for medicinal purposes. And I think it's interesting how Jesus goes from a lot of seeds and a lot of different soils to the seed that fell on the good soil to a seed that produces a plant which provides shelter, protection, and food which benefits many.

[9:49] So he's kind of starting big and he's zooming in closer and closer. Ultimately, this parable points to what Jesus would do for us. How he would die on the cross. How he would go into the ground.

[10:00] But rise again and through him we have shelter, protection, spiritual food, and life for all who believe in him. And so now you might be thinking, I thought this was a Bible study on Acts chapter 17 verses 10 through 15, not Mark chapter 4.

[10:19] What does Mark chapter 4 have to do with Acts chapter 17? In Acts chapter 17, in fact all of Acts, we see the reality, the fulfillment of the parables that Jesus taught in Mark chapter 4.

[10:33] The apostles obeyed Jesus' command to go and make disciples. They shared the gospel. The gospel, the seed, falls on different types of soil. Some people hear it and receive it.

[10:43] Some people hear it and reject it. Some people hear it and believe it and receive eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. Others don't. In Acts chapter 17 verses 10 through 15, we see what happens when the seed, again the gospel, falls on good soil.

[10:58] We also continue to see the hostility of those who are like the seed that fell on the hard ground or on the path. people who not only reject the gospel but hate it and hate it for the truth that it reveals about their sin and their need for salvation.

[11:15] As Christians, we know that Jesus has commanded us to go and make disciples. Matthew 28. We are commanded to proclaim the gospel. We are commanded by our Lord to scatter seed.

[11:26] We don't know what the results will be, but we know that there will be results. And we trust those results to the Lord. So the main idea for our study tonight is that Christians faithfully share the gospel and trusting the results to the Lord.

[11:42] Christians faithfully share the gospel and trusting the results to the Lord. So last week, we saw how Paul entered the synagogue in Thessalonica, and he spent three Sabbaths reading the scriptures and reasoning with the Jews from those scriptures, explaining to them how they were fulfilled in Jesus, showing how Jesus is the Messiah, that he's the Son of God, and why it was necessary for him to die on the cross for our sins, but how he also rose again, conquering death, giving eternal life to all who repent of their sins and believe in him.

[12:18] In Thessalonica, some were persuaded. Some of those seed fell on good soil, but some of the seed fell on hard soil. And for those, they formed a mob, and they rioted, and they threw the city into an uproar.

[12:33] Paul and Silas were then sent to Berea, but a church was planted in Thessalonica. As Paul and Silas and Timothy enter Berea, we see how they were faithful to share the gospel, entrusting again the results to the Lord.

[12:51] They set an example for Christians today, how we are to carry out the same command in our time and our place to make disciples. Also, we're reminded in this text that the results aren't up to us.

[13:03] We scatter seed, God does the rest. And so our passage unfolds in three scenes, which communicate the truth that as Christians, we are to be faithful to share the gospel and trust the results to God.

[13:19] So scene number one, the gospel is received. The gospel is received. Verse 10 again, the brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue.

[13:32] Berea was about 50 miles southwest from Thessalonica, and it was more inland. It was not a coastal city. It was located in the foothills of Mount Birmingham, making it less accessible than the coastal cities.

[13:48] Cicero, the Roman orator, I believe that's what he was, and he did other things. Anyhow, Cicero said that Berea was off the road and out of the way.

[14:04] So we have a lot of places like that in Oklahoma, don't we? We stumbled across Bowering one time. It was a little bit off the road and out of the way. Seemed like a nice place. But anyhow, this is the case with Berea.

[14:17] It's not a small city. It's not an unimportant city. It's just a little bit more out of the way, which indicates a couple things. Verse 10 says the brothers, these were the Thessalonican Christians who sent Paul and Silas by night, not during the day, by night to Berea.

[14:35] And so what we see here is a plan. There are people in Thessalonica searching for Paul and Silas. And so the plan seems to be, let's send them out at night when they won't be seen to a place where they wouldn't suspect.

[14:54] So on the outside, it looks like Paul and Silas are being sent out of the way. But in reality, they are being sent by God to a place and to a people who are ready to receive the gospel.

[15:07] Paul and Silas didn't know what would happen in Berea, but they trusted in what they did know, that the Lord commanded them to share the gospel, and that's precisely what they did.

[15:18] This also reminds us of a principle, that sometimes our detours are God's divine appointments. Sometimes what we think is a detour is actually a divine appointment from God.

[15:33] I want to hear a story about one of these divine appointments in Kansas City. There's a big Awana conference that we went to, and the keynote speaker was a lawyer with the Alliance of Defending Freedom.

[15:45] Have any of you guys ever heard of the Alliance of Defending Freedom? So they work on behalf of Christians, just defending Christian rights. and he has argued in front of the Supreme Court, which was pretty neat just hearing him explain what it's like inside the Supreme Court and what it's like to argue a case in front of the judges there.

[16:04] So he came and he shared a story about a meeting that he had to go to. He had to take a flight to go to this important meeting and he was delayed in the airport. He was frustrated, as any of us are, whenever our planes are delayed and it was going to be like three hour delay or something like that.

[16:21] And so he's frustrated and he gets off the plane and he starts looking for a place to sit and he sees Joni Erikson Tata. Do you guys know who Joni Erikson Tata is? She's a paraplegic.

[16:32] She had a diving accident when she was 17. She's still alive, I believe, in her 60s. Christian author, a really devout Christian lady who the Lord has used to help many.

[16:44] And so he recognized her and he thought, well, I have time to kill. I don't want to bother her, but I just want to introduce myself to her. And so he went over to her and he introduced himself and she was very kind and she asked him to sit down next to her and she started asking him questions and what do you do?

[17:01] And so he said, I'm a lawyer with a group called the Alliance for Defending Freedom. And her eyes lit up and she looked at him and she says, you know what? I've been praying right now before you came up for God to send me a lawyer because she was trying to get Bibles out of our country into another country.

[17:18] If these packages were tied up and all of this legal red tape. So anyhow, there's an example of this man's detour actually being a divine appointment. Luke doesn't tell us what happened when Paul and Silas entered the synagogue in Berea, but it's safe to say that Paul did what he did in Thessalonica, what he did in every other synagogue and every other place that he entered.

[17:38] He reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, saying, this Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ.

[17:50] So we know what Paul would have done. He would have done what he always does. He goes into the synagogue. He opens the scripture and he explains from the scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah and he proves that through them.

[18:03] In the opening scene of Forrest Gump, Forrest has a box of chocolates which he offers to a lady sitting next to him on the park bench as they wait for the bus and he tells the lady, my mama always said, life is like a box of chocolates.

[18:14] You never know what you're going to get. Paul and Silas knew they were commanded to share the gospel but they didn't know what they were going to get when they shared the gospel. It could result in salvations.

[18:26] It could result in them being beaten or imprisoned. In this case, the result was that it was people who were ready to receive the good news. Verse 11 says, Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica.

[18:40] They received the word with all eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. From the example of the Berean Jews, we gain a clear picture of what the good soil looks like.

[18:51] Their manner of receiving God's word provides valuable lessons also that we can apply to our own lives. First, Luke says that they were more noble. The Greek word translated noble in the ESV was used in two ways.

[19:04] It could either describe somebody's high-ranking birth of being a part of a noble family. If you remember in 1 Corinthians 1.26, Paul uses this word there to remind the Christians that not many of you were of noble birth just to remind them of God's impartiality in salvation and His sovereignty in salvation.

[19:26] The other way that this word was used was the way that it's used here in Acts chapter 17 describing somebody of noble character. Someone who is polite.

[19:36] Someone who is dignified. Somebody who is respectful of others and therefore somebody worth respecting. So they invited Paul to preach and they received him.

[19:48] They welcomed him in Silas and Timothy. They accepted his clear explanation of the Old Testament scriptures and they were eager, meaning they were ready to examine the proofs that Paul had given them in scripture that Jesus is the Christ and that He's the Son of God.

[20:05] The Greek word translated as examine means diligent searching, examination without skepticism. Sometimes a person knows something is true but they desperately don't want it to be true and so they become skeptical of the source.

[20:23] Any of you guys ever encountered that? I know it's true but I don't want it to be true so I'm going to attack that person. I'm going to dig up some dirt on them and do something like that.

[20:33] Or if you think of a doctor, you want an examination, you want the doctor to actually trust that you think there's something wrong with you. You know, if you had a doctor come in and examine and you're like, ah, you know, I really don't think you're sick and you have a fever and you feel terrible and you're like, well, I don't think you're a very good doctor, right?

[20:53] So this is the opposite of that. These are people who, you know, hey, it sounds like this matches. I want to examine a little bit more not because I'm skeptical but because I want to know the truth.

[21:06] But again, you know, we look at the example with the Pharisees with Jesus. Instead of refuting what he said, they would attack his character. Remember? Isn't this the son of the carpenter?

[21:18] Wasn't he born the product of sinful fornication? You know what? He's casting out demons because really he's a partner with Satan. the Berean Jews were searching the scriptures to find ways to bend the scriptures to disprove or try to disprove Paul.

[21:36] They were searching the scriptures to see if what he said was true. They were practicing exegesis, not eisegesis. Eisegesis literally means to lead into, as in leading your own ideas into the text.

[21:52] Whereas, exegesis means to draw out. We want to know what the text says and we're going to draw that out instead of going to the text and try to make it force something to say that it doesn't say.

[22:03] So, eisegesis is when we read something into a biblical text that may not actually be there and exegesis is when we try to draw out of the text what is actually there.

[22:14] There's a time when we need to be skeptical, especially when we get phone calls and emails from people promising to give us money if we give them access to our bank account, that there's some prince in Nigeria who we're related to through some third cousin or whatever, and, you know, if you just give us your bank account information, we'll make you a millionaire.

[22:38] We need to be skeptical of such people. We need to be skeptical of the media, and especially of people who teach us God's Word, but how we do that is important. There's a lot of false teachers, and the better you know Scripture, the better you can examine their teaching and determine if what they say is accurate, if it matches with what the Bible says.

[23:01] But there are times when someone accurately and rightly shares the truth from Scripture that convicts us of sin, and maybe it's a sin that we don't want to confess. There are times when someone accurately and rightly shares the truth from Scripture that challenges our traditions, and that can be uncomfortable.

[23:20] uncomfortable. Well, surely the Bible says that you have to have organ music in church, right? No, there's no Scripture to support that, and there's some others that I could say, but let's just move on.

[23:35] R.C. Sproul and John MacArthur. There's this neat story about them and their relationship, two guys I looked up to, and it was neat that they were such good friends, and R.C.

[23:45] Sproul said this about John MacArthur. Now, one is a Presbyterian, the other one is not a Southern Baptist, but you know, should have been.

[23:58] He's definitely Baptistic like we are. Anyhow, there's different things that they didn't agree on, but they agreed on the Gospel. R.C. Sproul and John MacArthur. So, R.C. Sproul said this of John MacArthur, if John and I ever disagree on a minor point or a minuscule point of Scripture, or I think he's wrong and he thinks I'm wrong, here's what I know about John MacArthur.

[24:20] If I can go to the text and show John MacArthur that his understanding of the text is incorrect, then he'll change his. And I think that it was probably true for John MacArthur with R.C.

[24:34] Sproul. You know, if they could just go to the text and not care about being right for their own pride to win an argument, but if they say, look, this is what this says, and if they look at it together, then they'll let God's Word determine what is true and they'll believe it.

[24:49] So, like the Bereans, we need to test everything we hear and have taught and measure it by Scripture and ask ourselves, does it match? In their case, they found that it did.

[25:00] Verse 12 says, many of them therefore believed with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. God prepared their hearts to receive the gospel. The gospel seed took root.

[25:11] Praise God. We love that result, don't we? That's the result we're hoping for and praying for, but as we see in the next scene, that isn't always, or tragically often, the result.

[25:23] So, the second scene, the unbelieving Jews from Thessalonica continue to reject the gospel. Verse 13, but when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the Word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds.

[25:40] In an unfortunate way, this kind of rejection, though heartbreaking, proves to me how true the gospel is. It proves the truth of what Jesus said in John 15, 18 through 25. He said, If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

[25:55] If you are of the world, the world would love you as its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master.

[26:07] If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

[26:19] If I had not come and spoke to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my father.

[26:36] But the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled. They hated me without cause. So again, the gospel reveals our true condition, that we are sinners, and that we've sinned against our holy creator who is just to punish us for our sins.

[26:55] But for some people, the exposure of their sin is something that they can't handle. They not only reject the gospel, but they are vehement in their rejection of it, in their defense of themselves.

[27:11] These Jews hated the gospel so much. You think about this. They hated the gospel so much, and these Christians so much, that they took time out of their lives to travel to Berea, to figure out, first of all, where are they, to travel there, and to cause more problems for Paul and Silas once they got there.

[27:33] You know, I've heard somebody say it before, and I can't remember who, but basically it goes like this. If we aren't facing some kind of persecution for our faith, then we're probably doing something wrong.

[27:46] You know, even if it's something minor, if we're not facing some kind of persecution for our faith, then we're probably doing something wrong as far as people aren't associating us with Jesus as much as they need to.

[27:59] We see in Acts how God used persecution to spread the gospel. Christians in Jerusalem face persecution, and then they go out to Samaria. They face persecution, and they go further out to the Gentiles.

[28:11] They face persecution, and they keep on going to different places off the beaten path like Berea, and they keep scattering seed, and it keeps producing results. Scene 3.

[28:22] Paul resumes spreading the gospel. Verse 14. Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. Paul was the most prominent of the three.

[28:35] He was the one who did the preaching in the synagogue, and so thus he would have been the primary target of those who rejected the gospel. The Bereans saw the effect that the Jews from Thessalonica were having on their city, and so they decided what was best.

[28:53] I'm sure they did that prayerfully with Paul's and Silas's and Timothy's input that Paul should leave as soon as he can. I think the urgency of the situation, and Paul being the primary target, again, of the agitators is why Silas and Timothy stayed back so that Paul could go.

[29:11] And again, this is a different time and a place. I don't know how easy it was to book passage on the ship, but I'm sure it was a lot harder than it is for us to book passage on an airplane or something like that. So there was room for Paul.

[29:23] They knew that Paul needed to leave, and so he left. Verse 15 says, Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, he departed.

[29:35] And as we'll see next week, Paul gets to Athens, and once he gets to Athens, he doesn't think, you know what? Man, that's two close calls in a row. I think I just need a vacation.

[29:46] I'm just going to take a break and recover and wait for Silas and Timothy to meet me. He doesn't do that at all. He just goes right about doing what God has called him to do.

[29:58] In one of my favorite passages of Scripture in Acts, where Paul meets with these intelligent Greek philosophers. But what is important for us to understand at this point is that we are called to share the gospel, but we trust the results to God.

[30:16] I had an evangelism class in seminary, and shocker, part of our weekly assignment was to actually share the gospel with an unbeliever.

[30:27] And so we would do that, and then we were to come back, and we would give a report. This is what happened. This is where I met this person. This is the result of our conversation.

[30:39] And unfortunately, most of those reports were rejection. Just a lot of people trying to be nice and just excuse me, or you know, I have some questions. I want to talk to you later. Every once in a while, God would be gracious to save someone.

[30:51] It could be hard. It was hard for me because I'm somebody who loves baseball. And baseball, it's the only sport, I think it's maybe the only thing you can do where you can fail seven out of ten times and be paid millions of dollars to keep doing it.

[31:07] You think about it? If you bet $300, they'll pay you millions of dollars to fail seven out of ten times. But when it comes to evangelism, I just remember being convicted by our teacher that, you know what?

[31:20] He told us, you guys, if you are faithful to share the gospel and you communicate the truths of the gospel, who Jesus is and what Jesus has done, you've told people about their sin, you've warned them about the consequences of that.

[31:34] Even if they reject it, if you do that ten out of ten times with ten people, you're batting a thousand. You've done exactly what God has commanded you to do. We hope and we pray for people to be saved, but we don't know what kind of soil they are when we speak to them.

[31:54] Our job is to be faithful. We're commanded to share, but we can't save anyone. Only God can do that. And so we trust the results to Him. Now, this doesn't mean that we say, well, God's going to save you, so here's the gospel.

[32:08] You're a sinner. Jesus is the Son of God. He died on the cross for your sins. He rose again. If you believe in that, you're saved. Okay, on to the next person. We need to be loving and compassionate and do our part to communicate this wonderful truth to people, knowing that God is the one who saves.

[32:25] But we need to implore them and urge them to turn to Jesus Christ. And so the adjustment is to be ready to share God's Word and be ready to hear God's Word. Be ready to share God's Word like Paul and Silas and be ready to hear God's Word like the Bereans.

[32:42] One of the ways you can share God's Word is just to make your conversations gospel conversations. Just steer them in that direction. The person that excels in this is my wife.

[32:53] She's just really good to talk with people and somehow steer the conversation towards, well, where do you go to church? Gosh, but we don't go to church anywhere. Well, you know, do you have kids?

[33:04] Well, we have Awana on Wednesday night and just before you know it, she's got it going. And so just try to steer your conversations towards gospel conversations. One easy thing to do is to ask people, how can I be praying for you?

[33:18] People have prayer requests. And in my experience, even if they're not a believer, they usually don't turn down a prayer request. And then you get that prayer request, you pray for them, and then you go back and you ask them, how's it going?

[33:30] I've been praying for this matter. I want an update. So there's some ways to be ready to share the gospel. Again, you know, see your detours as divine appointments. That would help as well. And then be ready to hear God's word.

[33:43] I think this, you know, when we're talking about Sunday and your Sunday school class or the sermon, if you know what the text is going to be, then read it beforehand and try to get a better feel for it before you have it taught to you and then ask your questions afterwards.

[33:56] And I think also just spending time in prayer on Saturday night or Sunday morning. You know, God, I'm going to meet with your church in your house tomorrow. And I pray that I would receive your instruction.

[34:09] I pray that you would convict me of my sin. I pray that you would change me and make me more like Jesus. If you do those things, I think you'll see and you'll experience the blessings that come from that.

[34:23] Heavenly Father, thank you for this time that we've had to be together and to be in your word. Just looking over Acts chapter 17, verses 10 through 15 and your missionaries visit to the people in Berea.

[34:36] God, I pray that we would be reminded of what you've commanded us to do. Lord, everyone who you've saved, whom you've been gracious to save, you've called to make disciples. You've told us to share the gospel with unbelievers in the hopes that they'll be saved.

[34:50] And so, Lord, I pray that we would be eager participants in what you've commanded us to do. But then, Lord, also that we would know that you are the one who produces the results. We don't know if the person we're talking to is someone who's ready to receive it or if it's going to be hard ground or something else.

[35:06] So, Lord, just help us to be faithful to the task that you've given to us. No matter what the results are, Lord, we pray that ultimately they would glorify you. We ask these things in Jesus' name.

[35:17] Amen. I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm